Skid steer loaders are well known in the art and typically comprise a body having skid-steer drive means mounted thereto. The drive means may be either front and rear pairs of driven wheels, left and right endless tracks, or front and rear pairs of wheels having rubber belts or steel tracks therearound to simulate endless tracks. Typically, the loaders have left and right interconnected lift arms pivotally mounted to respective tower portions of the body near the rear of the loader, and an implement, such as a bucket for example, is attached at the forward ends of the lift arms. Hydraulic lift actuators or the like are connected between the body and the lift arm to raise and lower the lift arms, and one or more hydraulic actuators are connected between the lift arms and the implement to tilt the implement relative to the lift arms.
Skid steer loaders, in many applications, are used to load material into dump trucks, wagons, or other containers. In this application, current skid steer loader lift arm arrangements require the loader be practically abutted with the container in order for a load to be dumped into the container. Such loading conditions are problematic. Increased dump reach which avoids the need to abut the loader with the container can be achieved by moving the pivot point of the lift arm near the forward end of the loader, but such location of the lift arms may lead to machine instability and undesirable loading of the machine body.
Other problems faced in the use of skid steer loaders relate to machine productivity as it is impacted by the cycle times needed to move the implement to various locations and orientations relative to the loader body and the need for good operator forward visibility without locating components in interference with the body or other parts of the machine.
This invention is directed to solving one or more of the aforementioned problems.